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| Crop Over | |
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| Observed by | Barbados |
| Type | Cultural |
| Significance | End of annual harvest |
| Celebrations | Processions, music, dancing, and the use of masquerade |
| Date | June to first Monday in August Dates below are for Kadooment |
| 2022 date | August 1 |
| 2023 date | August 7 |
| 2024 date | August 5 |
| 2025 date | August 4 |
| Frequency | Annual |
| Related to | Caribbean Carnival, Carnival |
Crop Over is a traditional harvest festival which began in Barbados, having had its early beginnings on the sugar cane plantations during slavery.
The original crop-over tradition began in 1687 as a way to mark the end of the yearly harvest, but was wide-spread throughout the region at the time, including in St. Vincent, Trinidad and Jamaica. As such, it still shares similarities with Carnival in Brazil and Trinidad. Many crop-over celebrations were organized and sponsored by planters, who used gifts of food and liquor as a means of reenforcing and excusing the continued enslavement of their labour force. However, slaves would also have often unsanctioned fetes that featured singing, dancing and accompaniment by bottles filled with water, shak-shak , banjo, triangle, fiddle, guitar, and bones that were more in keeping with their ancestral culture. [1] Other traditions that were later added included climbing a greased pole, feasting and drinking competitions. However, with the harsh effects of World War II on Barbados, these annual celebrations came to an end. The Crop Over Festival was first launched on June 1, 1970, around the same time as the birth of Alison Hinds, but was not officially called a festival until four years later.
Crop Over was revived and organized as a national festival in 1974 by local stakeholders including Julian Marryshow, Flora Spencer, Emile Straker, and Livvy Burrowes with the Barbados Tourist Board, as a way to attract more tourists to the island and revive interest in local folk culture. [2] Beginning in June, Crop Over now runs until the first Monday in August when it culminates in the finale, The Grand Kadooment.
The entire two months have a party-like atmosphere, with a variety of public and privately held events. The various official 'Events Barbados' festival albums typify the sense of national merriment which is prevalent across the season (see "Official Event Galleries".). The private events serve as the lead up to Kadooment Day and have many concepts such as sunrise, cooler, sunset, and all-inclusive themes. One of the major public features held is the calypso competition. Calypso music, originating in Trinidad, uses syncopated rhythm and topical lyrics which may satirise local politics or comment on the issues of the day. Calypso tents feature a cadre of calypsonians who perform biting social commentaries on the happenings of the past year, political exposés or rousing exhortations to wuk up or "wine up", "jonesing", roll de bumper, guh down (pronounced "dung") and "six-thirty" dance. Most recently, local variations of soca music have also featured prominently at the festival. There are also craft markets, food tents and stalls, street parties and cavalcades every week supplemented by other daily events.
Competition 'tents' ring with the fierce battle of calypsonians for the coveted Calypso Monarch Award. There are also the People's Monarch and Party Monarch competitions. The People's Monarch is a competition in which the public are given groups of songs; each group with two songs, and they vote until a winner is chosen. The Party Monarch competition, however, is chosen by a panel of judges and is based on presentation. Therefore, you may have the best song but not be able to make use of stage and props and not be crowned 'Party Monarch King/Queen'. The competition is held on the Ermy Bourne Highway, commonly known as East Coast. The air is redolent with the smells of Barbadian cooking during the Bridgetown Market Street Fair. Rich with the spirit of local culture, the Cohobblopot Festival blends dance and drama and music with the crowning of the King and Queen of costume bands. Every evening the 'Pic-o-de-Crop' Show is performed when finally the King of Calypso is crowned. The climax of the festival is Kadooment Day celebrated with a national holiday when costume bands fill the streets with Barbadian music and fireworks.
2020's Crop Over and National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (NIFCA) were both cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. [3]
Sugar as food commodity | |||||||
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Calypso is a style of Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago during the early to the mid-19th century and spread to the rest of the Caribbean Antilles by the mid-20th century. Its rhythms can be traced back to West African Kaiso and the arrival of French planters and their slaves from the French Antilles in the 18th century.
The music of Trinidad and Tobago is best known for its calypso music, soca music, chutney music, and steelpan. Calypso's internationally noted performances in the 1950s from native artists such as Lord Melody, Lord Kitchener and Mighty Sparrow. The art form was most popularised at that time by Harry Belafonte. Along with folk songs and African- and Indian-based classical forms, cross-cultural interactions have produced other indigenous forms of music including soca, rapso, parang, chutney, and other derivative and fusion styles. There are also local communities which practice and experiment with international classical and pop music, often fusing them with local steelpan instruments.
A calypsonian, originally known as a chantwell, is a musician from the anglophone Caribbean who sings songs of the calypso genre.
The music of Barbados includes distinctive national styles of folk and popular music, including elements of Western classical and religious music. The culture of Barbados is a syncretic mix of African and British elements, and the island's music reflects this mix through song types and styles, instrumentation, dances, and aesthetic principles.
The Toronto Caribbean Carnival, formerly known as Caribana, is a festival of Caribbean culture and traditions held each summer in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is a pan-Caribbean Carnival event and has been billed as North America's largest street festival, frequented by over 1.3 million visitors each year for the festival's final parade and an overall attendance of 2 million.
The music of Saint Kitts and Nevis is known for a number of musical celebrations including Carnival. The last week in June features the St Kitts Music Festival, while the week-long Culturama on Nevis lasts from the end of July into early August.
The Trinidad and Tobago Carnival is an annual event held on the Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday in Trinidad and Tobago. This event is well known for participants' colorful costumes and exuberant celebrations. There are numerous cultural events such as "band launch fetes" running in the lead up to the street parade on Carnival Monday and Tuesday. It is said that if the islanders are not celebrating it, then they are preparing for it, while reminiscing about the past year's festival. Traditionally, the festival is associated with soca music, with its origins formulated in the midst of hardship for enslaved West and Central Africans; however, recently Soca music has replaced calypso as the most celebrated type of music. Costumes, stick-fighting and limbo competitions are also important components of the festival.
The culture of Dominica is formed by the inhabitants of the Commonwealth of Dominica. Dominica is home to a wide range of people. Although it was historically occupied by several native tribes, it was the Taíno and Island Caribs (Kalinago) tribes that remained by the time European settlers reached the island. "Massacre" is a name of a river dedicated to the murders of the native villagers by both French and British settlers, because the river "ran red with blood for days." Each claimed the island and imported slaves from Africa. The remaining Caribs now live on a 3,700-acre (15 km2) Carib Territory on the east coast of the island. They elect their own chief.
Austin Lyons, better known as Superblue, Super Blue and Blueboy, is a Trinidadian calypsonian, soca musician, and lyricist.
Anthony Carter, better known as Mighty Gabby or simply Gabby, is a Barbadian calypsonian and folk singer, and a Cultural Ambassador for the island of Barbados.
Stedson Wiltshire, better known by the sobriquet of Red Plastic Bag, RPB, or merely Bag, is a calypsonian from Barbados. He has won the Barbadian calypso monarch competition a record ten times. Hailing from the eastern, rural Barbadian parish of Saint Philip, RPB became one of few performers from that region in the island to become successful. He carries a large support group of fans that show up to cheer him on from Stand C when he performs against other calypsonians at Barbados National Stadium.
The Antiguan Carnival is a celebration of the emancipation of slavery in the country held annually from the end of July to the first Tuesday in August. The most important day is that of the j'ouvert, in which brass and steel bands perform for much of the island's population. Barbuda's Carnival, held in June, is known as Caribana. The Antiguan and Barbudan Carnivals replaced the Old Time Christmas Festival in 1957, with hopes of inspiring tourism in Antigua and Barbuda. Some elements of the Christmas Festival remain in the modern Carnival celebrations.
As an overseas départment of France, Martinique's culture is French and Caribbean. Its former capital, Saint-Pierre, was often referred to as the Paris of the Lesser Antilles. The official language is French, although many Martinicans speak a Creole patois. Based in French, Martinique's Creole also incorporates elements of English, Spanish, Portuguese, and African languages. Originally passed down through oral storytelling traditions, it continues to be used more often in speech than in writing.
The music of Barbados draws on the island's cultural heritage, and the music history of Barbados reflects the island's diverse cultures.
The Calypso Monarch contest is one of the two major annual calypso competitions held in Trinidad as part of the annual carnival celebrations.
Winston McGarland Bailey OBE, HBM, DLitt, better known by his stage name The Mighty Shadow or Shadow, was a calypsonian from Tobago.
Lord Pretender was the stage name of Aldric Farrell, M.O.M., H.B.M. a calypsonian vocalist born on the island of Tobago widely acknowledged to be a "master" of extempo, a lyrically improvised form of calypso music. Starting with an impromptu performance at the age of 12, his career spanned nearly seven decades until cancer of the larynx forced him to retire in the mid-1990s.
Sandra DesVignes-Millington, better known as Singing Sandra, was a Trinidadian calypsonian who won the Calypso Monarch title at the 1999 and 2003 carnivals.
The Trinbago Unified Calypsonians’ Organisation (TUCO) is a professional body representing the interests of calypsonians in Trinidad and Tobago and working to promote calypso music nationally and internationally. TUCO was established in 1993 and incorporated by an Act of Parliament in 1998. TUCO serves as the governing body for calypso in Trinidad and Tobago.
